Ethical/ legal question for my LinHES friends.
We only pay for cable internet
I plugged in a tv to the line last week and for some reason they turned basic cable back on.
Morally I realize that stealing is wrong and I'm not paying for cable, but Cable companies aren't people and they have no problem robbing people blind month after month.
Legally what are my responsibilities?
Do I have to report to Brighthouse Cable that they sending me signal?
Should I plug in to the signal they are giving me for free?

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My System

I think you probably know the answer to your question. Cable companies exist to sell you TV programming and that is how they make their money. Probably the equivalent to seeing someone drop $20 on the ground in front of you and picking it up and keeping it. I would guess that there is nothing illegal with what you are suggesting but it certainly is not moral. Just one man's opinion.

Are you planning to go 100% OTA?

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LINHES 8.3 BE/FE - MSI K9N6SGM-V with AMD A64 X2 4600+, 1GB Ram. 1.5TB WD. HDHR Prime & PVR150. Nvidia GT210. Silver remote.
FrontEnd - Dell Vostro 400 3.0GHz Core2Duo NVidia GeForce210. MCE Remote

I have been OTA for 2 years now. Plus Netflix. I happen to get a clear shot east to the towers and I can pick up most of the channels and only have real trouble with a VHF freq NBC channel and a Qubo channel with a weak transmitter.

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My System

Wow. I envy your freedom. Unfortunately ESPN and local Comcast sports net has me locked up. Plus the wife's reality shows.

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LINHES 8.3 BE/FE - MSI K9N6SGM-V with AMD A64 X2 4600+, 1GB Ram. 1.5TB WD. HDHR Prime & PVR150. Nvidia GT210. Silver remote.
FrontEnd - Dell Vostro 400 3.0GHz Core2Duo NVidia GeForce210. MCE Remote

A few years ago when I had Charter cable internet the basic cable TV fee was something like $13.95/month. if you wanted cable internet without basic cable TV they charged you an "access fee" or something like that. Guess what? It was $13.95 so I was paying for it either way. I suspect they can't block the basic channels and they are hitting you with the fee anyway. I know my parent's internet worked the same way with Roadrunner. It won't matter as of 4/15/2013 in my area because they are going to 100% encrypted digital cable so you'll have to pay for any tuner you use in my area.

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R7.4 Master Backend/Frontend 1 Ceton InfiniTV 4 AMD x4 9850/4GB/nVidia210 60GB SSD 5x2TB RAID5
Slave Backend/Frontend 1 Ceton InfiniTV 4 AMD 1050x6/4GB/NVidia 9500 40GB SSD 2x500GB SATA Maxtor
(Can't get 2nd Ceton tuner to work)

I'm on the opposite side of this. When Comcast started being complete ****s and encrypting everything including the OTA must carry channels, I said to heck with them, bought a good antenna and switched over to it 100%. On the other hand if you try to get their internet service a-la-carte, they actually charge you *MORE* than if you bundle it with the minimal cable offering. As a result I'm paying for a so called "service" that I don't use because their pricing is upside down.

When the cable modem starts getting seriously out of date I'll probably look at switching over to FiOS.